Thursday afternoon Cardinal news and notes

—Spread check: Cincinnati by 1.5.

—For those wondering about the schedule of events for today, there is U of L Athletic Association Executive Committee and Board of Directors meeting at 4 p.m. where the approval of Jeff Brohm’s contract is expected to be made quickly. Immediately following that, Brohm’s introductory press conference at Louisville will commence.

I also wouldn’t be shocked if you saw Jeff in attendance for this afternoon’s Sweet 16 volleyball match against Baylor at the Yum Center.

—Brian Brohm will serve as Purdue’s interim head coach for its Citrus Bowl game against LSU. Unless he lands the full-time job, I believe he will be joining Jeff’s staff at Louisville.

—So we’ve got that goin’ for us, which is nice.

This is where all the bad karma surrounding the program turns around.

—Approximately four hours following his decommitment from Louisville, Rueben Owens committed to Texas A&M. Hope tattoo removal was part of their NIL package.

—The Frazier Museum will be hosting a ton of Louisville basketball players from the ‘80s and ‘90s for a celebration of Denny Crum this evening. You can watch the event on YouTube here.

—Members of Louisville football’s 2023 recruiting class share their reactions to Scott Satterfield’s abrupt departure here.

—Ben Perry and Luke Kandra became the first real key contributors to enter their names into the transfer portal when they did so on Wednesday. Kandra has already committed to Cincinnati.

Louisville’s list of departures is now up to 11:

RB Trevion Cooley
RB Jalen Mitchell
LB KJ Cloyd
OL Max Cabana
DB Nicario Harper
DL Caleb Banks
CB Rance Conner
DL Henry Bryant
DE Zach Edwards
OL Luke Kandra
LB Ben Perry

—The Saint Peter’s Peacocks are The Athletic’s College Basketball Persons of the Year.

—The state of Kentucky has approved incentives for a plan to make Louisville Gardens into a film soundstage.

—It certainly sounds like Fox’s original plan was to commit to Louisville. Here’s hoping that’s still a possibility.

—After rushing for over 1,000 yards this past season at UNLV, former Louisville (and Manual High) RB Aidan Robbins is back in the transfer portal.

—In his latest U of L hoops newsletter Jeff Greer uses a simulator to determine the greatest Louisville basketball team of all-time. After a World Cup style tournament, the 2012-13 squad topped the 2004-05 team in a championship game thriller.

—The race to one victory between Louisville and Cal is still on after the Bears lost arguably the most winnable game left on their schedule last night against Eastern Washington.

—Speaking of, Brett Dawson polled a handful of college basketball experts to get their thoughts on who would win a game between the 0-10 Bears and the 0-8 Cardinals. A lot of the responses (especially mine) were silly, but some of them were also legitimately depressing.

Isaac Trotter, 247Sports: California 59, Louisville 56. Cal has two things on its side: a real point guard and real effort. It’s been a struggle all season long, but the effort has never been in question. That has, uhh, not been the case for Louisville. The Cardinals have more overall talent, but Cal has old, prideful veterans who will play with some spirit on a nightly basis. But cracking 60 would be a real struggle.

Sam Vecenie, The Athletic: California 62, Louisville 58. I think Cal wins a tight, very ugly game. I’ve never seen a team that is more careless with its execution offensively at the high major level than Louisville is this year. They turn the ball over like crazy. They take horrible shots. There isn’t enough ball movement. I just think they’re extremely easy to defend, especially in the halfcourt. But I absolutely would not watch this game, and I would recommend nobody else in this hypothetical multiverse does either.

Gary Parrish, CBS Sports: California 67, Louisville 63. According to KenPom, Louisville would be considered a slight favorite over Cal on a neutral court. But I’d probably lean toward Cal, which is an absolutely incredible statement that speaks to just how much of a nightmare this thing at Louisville has become.

—Cardinal Authority looks at the timeline of Jeff Brohm’s career for legendary Louisville player to now head coach of the Cardinals.

—Highlights from Tuesday night’s women’s basketball route of SIUE can be found here.

—If you purchase or renew season tickets for Louisville football by the end of day tomorrow, you can get free tickets to next Saturday’s Fenway Bowl.

—Bilal Powell, for one, is very excited about the new future of Cardinal football.

—There is plenty of buzz surrounding the potential transfer of Western Kentucky quarterback Austin Reed. If you’d like to see a little bit of what he’s able to do, you can check out his 2022 season highlights here.

—Safety Josh Minkins has confirmed that he’ll be around for the start of the Jeff Brohm era at U of L.

—Four-star big man Isaiah Miranda, who was once upon a time considered to be a Louisville lean, has committed to NC State. He’ll join the Wolfpack for the second semester of the current season.

—Appropriately, yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the famous Brohm-Bush state championship game.

—Insane.

—U of L’s official website appears to have gotten a facelift.

—Will Levis and Chris Rodriguez have both played their final games for Kentucky.

—The latest episode of the Cardinal Sports Zone podcast is here.

—It sounds like Yasir Abdullah has no plans to opt out of the Fenway Bowl.

—Louisville’s Trey Allen is the ACC track and field Performer of the Week.

—Former Louisville OL commit Jordan Church has committed to Florida A&M. Just when you thought there couldn’t possibly be any more hype surrounding the basketball game on Dec. 17 ...

—The CJ compiles some player and fan reactions to the homecoming of Jeff Brohm.

—There had been some talk that RB Devin Mockobee might follow Brohm from Purdue to Louisville. That doesn’t appear to be happening.

—This would be a nice addition.

—Jeff Brohm hasn’t formally been announced as Louisville’s new head coach (at least as of the time I’m typing this), but he’s already hit the ground running.

—Louisville Report’s Matt McGavic breaks down the Brohm hire.

—Over at Hammer and Rails, they’re thankful that Brohm left the program in a much better place than it was when he arrived.

—The Athletic’s Matt Fortuna writes about Louisville getting a “fresh start” under Brohm.

How often does a story like this close with everyone ending up happy?

Satterfield is a great coach whose ill-timed flirtation with South Carolina in 2020 re-opened a wound of neglect that the city wasn’t truly healed from. Remember, Satterfield became Louisville’s coach in the wake of the Bobby Petrino flameout only after Brohm had said no.

Brohm reignited that flame this summer at a speaking event, creating an untenable situation for Satterfield, who was one ill-timed loss away from losing his job after a 2-3 start that included a no-show in the opener at Syracuse and an inexcusable loss to a reeling Boston College team. That he not only survived but managed to get the Cards ranked in the penultimate College Football Playoff rankings speaks to how good he is at his job.

That he lost to a mediocre Kentucky team one week later — falling to 0-3 against the in-state rival — reminded all of just how fleeting those good feelings were.

So he went to Cincinnati. And by getting out before he could eventually get fired — he did not receive an extension after this season and had just two years remaining on his current deal — he got to restart his clock.

For Louisville, that meant not even having to pay a buyout to fire Satterfield, after the school shelled out $14 million to let Petrino go in 2018. And it meant landing Brohm, a rare ACC win over a Big Ten school in an age where the financial gap between the two conferences grows wider each day.

Now Louisville is feeling good again. The program can start anew. It knows what it has, and there is no more cloud hanging over any coach’s head.

If only Brohm and Satterfield could face off against each other near the Green Monster later this month. Then we’d really have some drama.

—Fox keeps updating the college football coaching carousel.

—Rick Bozich wonders what Howard Schnellenberger would have to say about Jeff Brohm’s return to Louisville.

—We’re on the air as always form 3-6 this afternoon and will break in to take the Jeff Brohm press conference whenever it gets underway during the second hour. You can stream the show here.

—And finally, beat Baylor.